SERE

I've heard horror stories from the Warner Springs camp (I live 5 miles from it, and knew a lot of instructors there). Nothing I would ever really want to go through.

I'm sure the sound of automatic weapon fire is a great thing to go to sleep (or wake up) to :D

Thanks for the link Hacker!
 
@ staple, I went to sunny warner springs as well. Highs in the 80s, lows in the low 30's......never had a moment at night when I wasn't shivering my balls off. You pretty quickly get over any aversion you have to spooning another man in those conditions.

)
three of us through Warner Springs...I was there in February of '80
 
With all due respect, the prison camp portion of SERE is classified for a reason. You shouldn't be posting this stuff on the internet.

With all due respect, how would you know?

Do you have military experience?

Have you been to any particular SERE program?
 
Wait until some of the shady places in Olangapo/Subic.....
Congrats on SERE.
Po city was the place God decided the devil can have without question or repercussion.
The best advice my Dad ever gave "You will get one of two things in Po city niether will wash off, make sure whatever you have is something your Mother will not cut you out of the will over."
I left with a hangover and a tattoo.
 
I did mine at Warner Springs, California (up in the high dessert of SoCal) and I've never been so cold in my life. I didn't sleep for 6 days...

We did the evasion part and I evaded for the entire time. When they set off the siren for everyone to come in to the camp, I was one of the first ones they grabbed. The "facilitators" were pissed at me because I had "evaded" for the entire time so I was singled out. I was grabbed by my shirt and rammed into a corrugated metal wall over and over... (I had bruises on my chest from this) and then I was water-boarded. Anyone who says water-boarding isn't torture doesn't know what they're talking about!

When I got into the "camp" I was put into a small box in the foetal position - I was so happy to be warm that I promptly fell asleep... not the response they were looking for so they put me in my "cell" and left me alone for awhile...

It was a great experience; it taught you what you could withstand...

Kevin
That sounds exactly as I remember it. I was war criminal number 5, so I had more time to get my arse whipped. I was black and blue for a month.
 
With all due respect, how would you know?

Do you have military experience?

Have you been to any particular SERE program?

He is correct. I'm going to just guess that staple's experience is pretty dated, so I'm not as worried about that. That being said, much of the current material in the course is classified confidential or secret, and you sign a non-disclosure agreement prior to starting training. It's important that the bad guys out there don't know what we train to.
 
He is correct. I'm going to just guess that staple's experience is pretty dated, so I'm not as worried about that. That being said, much of the current material in the course is classified confidential or secret, and you sign a non-disclosure agreement prior to starting training. It's important that the bad guys out there don't know what we train to.

When I went through portions of it were classified, but I don't remember which parts... Some stuff was OK to repeat, but it's been 30 years, so I'm sure that thIngs have changed.
 
He is correct. I'm going to just guess that staple's experience is pretty dated, so I'm not as worried about that. That being said, much of the current material in the course is classified confidential or secret, and you sign a non-disclosure agreement prior to starting training. It's important that the bad guys out there don't know what we train to.

SERE C is most def classified. Not to hard to understand why. OPSEC not withstanding it would not be great to have the bad guys learn about our resistance/evasion training or give them any ideas to use on captured mil.
 
The BL, don't get captured. Especially not by some of the peeps we're fighting these days.
 
It's important that the bad guys out there don't know what we train to.
It's also important to preserve the shock value for people going through the course. SERE is intended to be a wake-up call for people still wearing rose-colored glasses about the business they're in. Not knowing what's in store for you is a big part of that.
 
It's also important to preserve the shock value for people going through the course. SERE is intended to be a wake-up call for people still wearing rose-colored glasses about the business they're in. Not knowing what's in store for you is a big part of that.

What is your military experience other then CAP?

Not trying to bash CAP just trying to evaluate the source.
 
He is correct. I'm going to just guess that staple's experience is pretty dated, so I'm not as worried about that. That being said, much of the current material in the course is classified confidential or secret, and you sign a non-disclosure agreement prior to starting training. It's important that the bad guys out there don't know what we train to.

Agreed, that's how it was when I did my watered down local course.

That being said, I felt he was being reactionary- it's fairly common knowledge that folks get knocked around a little bit in SERE. Nothing new there.
Nothing discussed seemed to be of a classified or sensitive nature.
 
I honestly don't remember any of what I went through as being classified, but it has been 27 years...

With all of the discussion of water-boarding in the news, I don't think I have given anything away or discussed any classified specifics.

Kevin
 
What are the various "levels" of SERE and who goes through what level? That probably sounds pretty uninformed, but I'm curious. :laff: That's stuff the ANG recruiters don't tell you about...
To the OP, congrats on making it through!:)
 
What are the various "levels" of SERE and who goes through what level? That probably sounds pretty uninformed, but I'm curious. :laff: That's stuff the ANG recruiters don't tell you about...
To the OP, congrats on making it through!:)

There is SERE-A, SERE-B and SERE-C. The only things I know about A and B courses are what is on the wiki page. SERE-C is a full up 2 week course at one of the SERE locations, which includes about a week of classroom stuff and then another week of field-based practical experience. Part of this is basic survival (which is not really new to most military members), another portion is evasion training, and the third part is the resistance lab portion (which details issues related to short and long term captivity). The resistance stuff is all confidential or secret, but you can probably use your imagination and guess what it entails. SERE-C is for folks in jobs that are considered to be at high risk for capture. This includes primarily pilots, nav types, though it also is given to enlisted aircrewmen, and special operations forces folks.
 
There is SERE-A, SERE-B and SERE-C. The only things I know about A and B courses are what is on the wiki page. SERE-C is a full up 2 week course at one of the SERE locations, which includes about a week of classroom stuff and then another week of field-based practical experience. Part of this is basic survival (which is not really new to most military members), another portion is evasion training, and the third part is the resistance lab portion (which details issues related to short and long term captivity). The resistance stuff is all confidential or secret, but you can probably use your imagination and guess what it entails. SERE-C is for folks in jobs that are considered to be at high risk for capture. This includes primarily pilots, nav types, though it also is given to enlisted aircrewmen, and special operations forces folks.

basically any aircrew member goes to SERE-C is what he is saying
 
basically any aircrew member goes to SERE-C is what he is saying

better brevity :)

Not sure about the AF school, but in my class there was still a sizeable portion of folks who weren't aviation types. Most either deployed with SEALs or were Marine Force Recon or MARSOC types
 
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